Long Time No See!
I have been gone for quite some time now. That's mostly my fault, to be honest. Life happens when you are busy making other plans and when it rains... it pours!
I left Sweden and came back to Texas back in December. We are waiting for the immigration services to get my residence permit in order. Talk about a bureaucratic nightmare of digital paperwork! It figures that my luck would include a pandemic in the process and now hurry up and wait... is exponentially amplified.
I have been diligently trying to catch up on all that was missed in my absence and don't think that is even possible! So, we had a merger, a hostile takeover, blatant mass robbery, and an Exodus of Biblical Blockchain proportions. Seems like the same kind of thing is happening in the world too. Having been gone from the States for so long it was quite nice to not have the propaganda machine on crack bludgeoning my senses. That is not to say that Sweden is free of it's own propaganda by way of the state media machine. I think they hate the current President of the United States more than our own citizens.
I have always tried to see things from different perspectives and to think critically. It's quite disturbing to me to see how the media has such a sway over how and what folks think and feel. In photojournalism class back in high school I had an awesome teacher... Mr. Brandt. He revealed that way back then there was not much true journalism left. He explained that journalists were just supposed to report facts and let the audience decide for themselves. He taught me most of what I know about photography back when we rolled our own film and developed our own prints in the darkroom. At times I miss the ambiance of the darkroom and the smell of the chemicals changing the light-sensitive photo paper from solid white to images in greyscale.
I learned a lot in that class and eventually worked my way onto the yearbook staff. I never really cared for the candid shots of folks eating in the lunchroom or somebody confounded over menial schoolwork. It was always the art of seeing things from a different perspective that appealed to me. Capturing a moment in time of something from a view that was not native to the natural eye seemed intriguing to me.
Today, with all the digital options and the way technology has made many of the old ways archaic if not altogether obsolete, I miss the art of photography and the journalism of the art. Mr. Brandt came from the hippie Vietnam war era and his approach to journalism was from the freedom of expression and the market-place of free ideas point of view. An approach that I see making a comeback in the decentralized realm of BlockChain technology.
It's sad how far the media has fallen from it's original intent. Information is suppose to inform not conform it's audience. Just after high school and a short time the U.S. Army I went to a college class with my girlfriend at the time who was attending the University of North Texas. I probably wasn't supposed to be there but I went to her media class with here where they were having a lecture. The lecturer was giving a talk about the news outlets and how media impacts our society. One thing that really stuck with me was how all the media giants and corporate conglomerates were essentially all owned by a small handful of people. This was in 2001 so that handful of people has shrunk even smaller since then.
Between Mr. Brandt and the man speaking at the lecture, it wasn't hard to begin to see the proverbial writing on the wall. The Bread and Circus mentality of the few in control of the flow of information and the willingness for folks to be entertained by the circus and satiated by the media's moldy morsels of daily bread is a disturbing scene to behold. Unfortunately, this trend is not confined to America... it's a worldwide web trending.
In the age of information, it makes my heart sick to see the willing ignorance of the masses but worse still would be those that believe they are enlightened and informed. I don't rightly know where I even fit into the spectrum to be quite honest. All I do know is that the media is just the glove of a hidden hand and all the outlets that would disperse information are just fingers of that hand. The right hand, often, doesn't know what the left hand is doing!
I will give two quotes to show that I am not alone in my thinking about the state of current affairs and that these concerns go back much further than my high school days in the late nineties.
"To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted so as to be most useful, I should answer ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. it is a melancholy truth that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of it’s benefits, than is done by it’s abandoned prostitution to falsehood. nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. the real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day"
"I will add that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. he who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false."
~ Thomas Jefferson letter response to John Norvell, 11 June 1807
What an elegant way to express the cares and concerns that seem to die-hard if not increase in menacing peril. I can see the passions of so many conflicting interests brewing up a storm! It looks like there were other forecasters that had similar premonitions.
“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar weekly salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
~ John Swinton, former chief of staff, The New York Times, in a 1953 speech before the New York Press Club
Sixty-Seven years later imagine how prestigious the New York Times has become?! I don't intend on addressing any of the current events or issues of the day. I was originally just going to type up about the cool Passion flowers growing on the vines and show some of the cool photos captured of the storm that is still going now as this is being typed up.
However, I can't help but to feel the pressure that has been building in the social climate of our society. I saw it brewing in Sweden except with different ingredients and flavors. I see the social conditioning and programming kicking into full effect and pumping full on. I just wonder where this dump is going to end?
In the market-place of free ideas, there are many discussions that need to be had within society and the different social fabrics that are knit together through history to build what we have now. Many points of conflict and friction need to be assuaged through healthy dialogue and coming together with an understanding that can ultimately lead to the change needed to build the future we all want to share together.
Unfortunately, with the false dichotomy of Black and White being presented as our only choices, or with the double standard of the double-minded thought police trying to shame folks into feelings that are in accordance with the plans of the very few we can see the future isn't looking so bright. It's especially grim if people just continue to consume the spoon-fed information that is practically falsified daily to provide the narrative that serves best for those that enjoy having their pockets lined by our ingnorance.
“News is whatever the goddamn government says it is.”
~Reuven Frank, former president of NBC News from Harvard Business Review
We have to draw a few conclusions when the media is seemingly at war with the government. I find interest in what the media leaves out more often than what it has to report. I often asked my friends and family in Sweden, as well as here in the States, when was the last time you heard some Good News? Rarely, if ever did or does anyone ever have a good answer to report. There are still good things going on in the world and there are still wonderful people doing amazing things every day! That doesn't feed the fear and grow the beast though... so it goes unspoken and unreported in mainstream media internationally.
I pray that in the midst of all the hardships brought on by corruption in media, derelict and/or wicked governments, undermining forces working against what would be helpful or beneficial for the people, the pandemic and all of the exploitative uses of a crisis not going to waste along the way, that you are hanging in there. I pray that you are emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually holding on! I pray that your family is enduring as well. These truly are the times that try one's soul in more ways than one.
I know that there is passion from the forces of darkness just as much as there is passion from the side of all that is good. This is why it is imperative that we think for ourselves and live the love we want to see and be the change we expect to see in others. This method of our control is not sustainable. I would rather we build up and edify one another in faith instead of letting them program us to burn it all down. They will be the phoenix that rises out of our ashes. We are called not to fight fire with fire, but rather with water!
A good storm can bring out the best and the worst in us all. We will have to wait and see what grows after the storm blows on by.
It can't rain all the time. But when it rains, it pours!
I remember you. Welcome back!
Thanks! It's been too long and a whole lot has happened! Hahaha What did i miss? j/k Gonna have to get my sea legs back under me! hahah
Lots of drama for sure. Hive is the place to be though, not Steem anymore. Probably go back to some march posts from @theycallmedan and other large stakeholders and you will see what happened, if you care to investigate.
Thanks! I have been investigating and it took me a while to get the story. It's pretty crazy and i KNOW Hive is the place to be. I think it's what Steemit was trying to get to... now it's the Steem-ing Pile of Sun! I will check out the posts you mentioned to get more details. Sorry i missed all the excitement. Have a great weekend! (i used to say Steem On... now i will have to come up with something clever for Hive!)
Everyone says Hive On now. Go figure!
The good news is that you made this wonderful post today.
The even better news is that mah boy @castleberry reared his fluffy head!
Crazy times... Fear breeds hate.
That is why we need to highlight a lot of the good that is always happening around us... Tune into the good. :)
Glad to see ya back.
Hey thanks man! I couldn't agree more. Fear does breed hate and vice-versa! Highlighting the good and tuning in that Still Small Voice is an important game-changer in how our perspective will reveal to us the reality we take for granted. Thanks for taking the time to check out the post and I am looking forward to getting more engaged and active again! I downloaded the IBT game and played it a little. Super cool what Nigel and the IBT team have been up to. I hope we can get another old fashioned tournament going eventually! Don't forget...
